EASA suspends all flights of Boeing 737 MAX in Europe

As a rapidly growing number of countries are grounding the new Boeing plane involved in the Ethiopian Airlines disaster or turning it back from their airspace, use of the aircraft in Europe has been suspended while investigators in Ethiopia looked for parallels with a similar crash just five months ago in Indonesia.

As a precautionary measure, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) published an Airworthiness Directive, suspending all flight operations of all Boeing Model 737-8 MAX and 737-9 MAX aeroplanes in Europe.

In addition EASA has published a Safety Directive, suspending all commercial flights performed by third-country operators into, within or out of the EU of the above mentioned models.

Pressure is growing on the United States to take action over the Boeing 737 Max 8 as Asian, Middle Eastern and then European nations and carriers gave in to concerns.

Some insights into last Sunday’s disaster that killed all 157 people on board and its cause could take months, aviation experts warned.

Turkish Airlines, Oman, Norwegian Air Shuttle and South Korean airline Eastar Jet were among the latest to halt use of the Boeing model. Malaysia, Australia and Singapore suspended all flights into or out of their countries.

The U.S.-based Boeing, however, has said it has no reason to withdrawn the aircraft from the skies and does not intend to issue new recommendations about the aircraft to customers.